Drum brake shoes are secured to a drum brake backing plate by drum brake hold down springs, which secure the brake shoes to the backing plate while allowing for movement of the brake shoes relative to the backing plate when a brake application is effected. Hold down springs include a nail which extends through apertures in the backing plate and the brake shoe, a coil spring circumscribing the nail, and a spring retainer slidable on the nail. The spring extends between the brake shoe web and the retainer. The hold down spring must be assembled when the brake is assembled, which requires substantial manual dexterity of the assembler, because of the relative small size and relative complexity of the various components of the drum brake.
One hold down spring design is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,368,139, which discloses a hold down spring in which the spring retainer is assembled onto the nail by first forcing the retainer downwardly over the nail so that the enlarged end of the nail is received in a wider portion of an opening in the retainer as the spring is compressed, and then moving the retainer laterally to seat the nail in a narrower portion of the opening. The lateral movement of the retainer requires manual dexterity, and it is difficult to determine if the nail is properly seated.